Once a beer salesman, interim coach Joe Prunty now trying to get Bucks to the second round
Veteran basketball coach Hank Egan helped get Milwaukee Bucks interim coach Joe Prunty a job twice.
The first one: hawking Anheuser-Busch products in San Diego after Prunty finished college.
The second: a job on Gregg Popovich’s San Antonio staff as an assistant video coordinator.
The first job had its perks. “I started out in merchandising and moved into sales,” Prunty said of his first job after college at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo. “The one thing I enjoyed about that job more than anything was similar to the NBA: relationships. I liked working with people to help them move product to customers.”
While working that job, which started early and ended early, he began coaching basketball at the high school level. Los Angeles Lakers coach Luke Walton and former Chicago Cubs pitcher Mark Prior were on his teams at the University of San Diego High School.
The second job Egan helped Prunty led to a 20-year career in the NBA. It includes stints as an assistant coach/video coordinator on three Spurs championship teams; an assistant on Dallas’ 2006 Western Conference championship team; a role in coaching Dirk Nowitzki and Tim Duncan in their MVP seasons; coaching Duncan, Kyrie Irving and Malcolm Brogdon in their rookie of the year seasons; and being on the bench during coach of the year seasons for Popovich and Avery Johnson.
“I’ve been very fortunate to work with a group of people like that,” said the 49-year-old Prunty, who has also had a hand in Bucks All-Star Giannis Antetokounmpo’s development.
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Now, Prunty, who joined the Bucks as Jason Kidd’s lead assistant in 2014 and took over as interim coach when the Bucks dismissed Kidd in January, is trying to get the Bucks out of the first round for the first time since 2001. They went six games with Toronto last season after taking a 2-1 series lead and lost to Chicago in six games in 2015.
The Bucks trail Boston 1-0 after taking the Celtics to overtime in the series-opener. Game 2 is Tuesday (8 p.m. ET, TNT)
“What’s been amazing is how good we can be. We’ve had some very good wins and some tough losses,” Prunty said. “This team has the opportunity to do good things.”
Source:-https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nba/2018/04/17/bucks-interim-coach-joe-prunty-playoffs-selling-beer/524423002/
